England’s Cadet and Junior teams have finished 19th and 21st respectively at the European Youth Championships in Italy, missing out on a place in the top division for next year.
The Cadet line-up of Tom Jarvis and Luke Savill dug deep to beat Greece 3-2, Savill getting the crucial victory in the final match, taking the fifth and final end 11-3 after twice being pegged back by Efstratios Damanias.
They then suffered a 3-2 reverse against Lithuania. Both Tom and Luke won their singles matches against Medardas Stankevicius but both lost to Remas Livas, but Lithuania took the pivotal doubles match 14-12 in the fifth.
The final match saw a relatively straightforward 3-1 win over Switzerland, with both boys winning their opening singles 3-0. After the doubles had been lost in four, Tom beat Dimitri Brunner to seal the victory.
Meanwhile, the juniors lost their final match 3-2 to Belgium. Danny Lawrence went down to Martin Allegro but Helshan Weerasinghe leveled with victory over Arthur Billas.
Adam Harrison then came from 2-0 down to beat Thibault Darcis in the fifth, only for Weerasinghe and Lawrence to both lose their reverse singles in four.
The doubles and singles events get under way today.
By Paul Stimpson (16th July, 2014)